matt berninger

Whatever’s wrong in your heart or in your life, the record absorbs it like a sponge. They’re still playing the long game and winning, with family and friendship at their core. He adds: “Obama winning was just like, ‘Everything is going to happen now. “All the songs I’ve ever loved are fluid enough for me to sink into them and be the character,” Berninger replies. The National now rub shoulders with While it’s tempting to trace that thread throughout his life, though, he insists: “I’m entirely different to the man I was when I made ‘High Violet’. We all have the capacity to become whatever we want.”The world's defining voice in music and pop culture since 1952. Heading into their fifth album, The National had to figure out who they were, and who they wanted to be.But, he continues, “I didn’t want that. Personal Quote: [on his film 'Mistaken for Strangers'] The coolest thing is we've heard that a lot of therapists have been talking about the movie and recommending it. “Meeting Obama seemed more important than being on any big stage,” says Berninger.

The introverts opened up and brightened the corners of their black post-punk sound. We wanted to be a big band. “Sometimes something forces you to shut down for a while,” says Berninger of his run of bad luck, “and you come back and it’s an opportunity to remember why you’re doing this.”United in their vision and ambition, The National would finish what might still be their most cohesive and complete album to date. ‘High Violet’, with a title inspired by overhearing talk of the threat levels in New York after 9/11 (‘high orange’ being the most severe), was the crystallisation of all that they’d previously sought to master – but with a more accessible sheen.You can feel this shift from first notes of opener ‘Terrible Love’: it’s there in the Dessners’ genius sonic textures, which are as rich as ever, but this time with a little more warmth, lift and release. Check out some of the IMDb editors' favorites movies and shows to round out your Watchlist.

At the same time, there was so much division. Even from this distance, though, he finds it “hard to tell” if he really enjoyed the original ‘High Violet’ shows as much as you might expect.Either way, the band’s real ‘pinch me’ moment arrived in September 2010, when they were invited to perform to 25,000 people before a speech from Barack Obama at a rally in Wisconsin. I think that’s a thread I always walk along”“I have so many songs about trying to find out who I am, Berninger says. On the plane back to the funeral, his eardrum burst under the cabin pressure, leaving him unable to hear in his right ear for a while. The searching for who I was going to be – and trying to figure out who I used to be – was all part of that process. “We’d been a band for 10 years and were exhausted through all the conflict – personal conflict, creative conflict, touring life, living on a bus together for so long. The music video for this track, published on the 20th of May 2020, was filmed in the studio and it features the song's co-producer, Booker T. Jones.

I couldn’t play piano, but I wanted to be Fully aware of their status as a ‘grower band’ (though Berninger laughs that “that always felt like an underhanded compliment”), they set about writing some songs that would connect straight away and on a huge scale. Oh, no we haven’t!’ Never count your fucking chickens. I was married, I had a baby and I was an entirely different person. 2007’s stately and opulent ‘Boxer’ was showered with acclaim, but the indie darlings were still far from the arena-filling heights of many of their peers. But, once I entertained the thought that maybe I wouldn't ever have to go and sit in conference rooms with MasterCard to discuss web ads again, I couldn'

“Now I’m playing in front of these big crowds and realise how much more significant they are than having a few photos with Obama. Later, you play it again and all of that emotion comes out again. “We loved the record when it was done,” says Berninger, “but whole career was just a series of moments of going, ‘We’ve made it! But at the time [it was] hard to have any perspective on it.”“Meeting Obama seemed more important than being on any big stage”In the Obama years, he says, the US exuded “a sense of enlightenment, optimism and possibility”. Celebrate National Dog Day with a look at some shows that feature a few of the most adorable dogs on TV.Looking for some great streaming picks? The National still don’t have a hit to their name. Berninger's brother, Tom, directed the video. Government had got so brutal and disgusting with Bush and even Clinton.“Looking back now, the beginning of an eight-year Obama presidency – compared to what we’ve been living through now with four years of a fascist… I mean – wow, talk about perspective.”10 years later and what’s going on in the White House now seems more backward and “gross” than ever imaginable. The band endured a prolonged period of obscurity from their 2001 self-titled debut album and 2003’s underrated follow-up ‘Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers’; while 2005’s ‘Alligator’, their third album, first perfected the combination of dark, raw-nerved realism and heart-bursting indie anthemics that make up the DNA of the band we know today. 10 years ago, The National enjoyed something of an Indian summer.